Ba Chi Canteen – #PhoDown

In May we visited what I’ll say is my favorite restaurant on the #PhoDown tour. Not that it’s my favorite pho, but that overall, it was the best restaurant we’ve been to. But that’s getting ahead of myself. Let’s get back to the beginning. Last month we visited Ba Chi Canteen, located on Maple Street, in the Riverbend/Black Pearl/Audubon area of Uptown New Orleans. It’s a new-ish spot with lots of promise.

As I said, this is my overall favorite place that we’ve visited so far on the #PhoDown tour. The main reason for this is the sheer variety of delicious looking dishes on the menu. Their menu is quite extensive and everything looked so delectable. Ba Chi Canteen has, by far, the largest, highest quality menu that I’ve seen on our pho tour. While we go for the pho mainly, the ancillary dishes are very important to the overall experience.

The title photo above is a compilation of the six dishes we tried at Ba Chi Canteen. We had about 10 folks at #PhoDown on this particular visit so it was easy for us to order quite a bit of food and still finish it all. That’s one of my favorite things about going out in a big group – variety!! Now we’ll take the dishes one by one and see what was so great about them…

The Cuisine:

Tofu “Baco”

This is Ba Chi Canteen’s version of a taco. This is the first time I’ve seen steamed buns presented so artfully and thoughtfully at a pho place here in the New Orleans area. And I love the name “baco,” which must be a combo of “Ba Chi” and “taco.” (I can only assume). We had two of them – this first one being made with tofu. Honestly, I can’t remember which one we had (there were 4 tofu versions on the menu) but I do remember enjoying them very much.

Ba Chi “Baco”

This is the namesake, classic “baco” from Ba Chi Canteen. It’s made with pork belly, which was perfectly cooked. The dish also contained carrot and cucumber plus a tangy, delicious brown sauce. I definitely recommend getting a “baco” when visiting Ba Chi Canteen. They are sold individually so you can mix and match as many as you want!

Kim Chi Fries

Ok, I know this isn’t how kimchee is traditionally spelled. I’m using what they had on the menu. If you get nothing else here, get the Kim Chi fries. One warning though, they aren’t vegetarian. There’s some delicious beef hidden under the sauce and kimchee. I really enjoyed this and the kimchee was very pleasant. Not overbearing or too spicy. To me, the dish was well-balanced. And it’s definitely something I’m getting on my next visit to Ba Chi Canteen.

Spicy Lemongrass Chicken Wings

What I didn’t mention earlier is that Ba Chi Canteen is owned by the same people who run Tan Dinh. And you may remember that Tan Dinh has some AMAZINGLY tasty chicken wings. So we had to try the chicken wings here to see if they lived up to their sister restaurant’s offerings. Verdict – they’re not quite as amazing as Tan Dinh’s but is still among some of the best chicken wings I’ve ever had. I like how they leave the two portions of the wing in tact. Makes for a very satisfying dish.

Charred Pork Spring Rolls

So of course we had to have spring rolls. Ba Chi Canteen has a whole selection of spring rolls, but we went with the classic version. They were served with peanut sauce (not pictured) and were pretty tasty. I like how they used large slabs of pork. Makes for a very hearty roll, indeed.

Spicy Lemongrass Tofu Pho

Finally, the star of the show – the pho! I deviated form the norm and did not get the rare beef pho. I opted instead for the spicy lemongrass tofu. And it was SPICY. Seriously. It was very tasty, but I was sweating and my nose ran the whole time. And I promise I didn’t add any Sriracha or jalapeños. I loved the flavor so I didn’t stop eating it, but I definitely didn’t sip the broth after I finished the soup contents, as I normally would. I recommend this dish if you have a tolerance for spicy things. But if not, skip it in favor of the regular tofu pho. You’ll be happy either way.

Conclusion:

Highly recommend! The dishes I present here are just a fraction of what Ba Chi Canteen has to offer. Try this place for sure, if you’re interested in New Orleans’s pho scene. One thing to note, the service was a bit spotty and slow. I chalk this up to us having a big table (??), but it was a noticeable issue. The food made up for it so I’m willing to forgive it.